Bleach 568 – The Fear of God

After all these years, it seems that everyone’s favorite female lead character still can’t catch a break in her fights; she has had little luck in her fights, from the fullbringers to the arrancars to the very beginning of the series against Fishbone D. Most of the other lead characters have gotten their time to shine as they display dominating solo performances against opponents, while Rukia gets the best possible power-ups and training that Soul Society has to offer… and still gets crapped on by As Nodt. Despite being frozen solid at absolute zero temperatures, As Nodt manages to break free after Rukia warms herself back up, displaying his true form as some sort of zombie demon freak. He unleashes the “Fear of God” that materializes a dome filled with thousands of his own eyes, paralyzing Rukia with fear. Of course the fact that his fear works now makes no sense since nerves are made up of cells too, and if Rukia can suspend all the functions of her cells and still fight then her nervous system and eyes should also have stopped working, especially at temperatures that low.

Regardless, Rukia is now frozen and helpless, and before we get the chance to see if she has any other unrevealed abilities (I’m guessing she does not) her brother shows up to save her – exactly what I was hoping would not happen. It’s such a shame; I actually thought for once that she would get to defeat her opponent with ease. The way As Nodt looks at it, his rematch with Byakuya seems to be the main attraction, not Rukia. Byakuya of course has also received upgrades with the Royal Squad and looks somewhat different now after being severely injured almost to the point of death. This time around however, I think it’s almost certain that he will completely overwhelm the Sternritter. And unless Rukia surprises us with something new, she’s bound to be relegated to the sidelines again for the rest of this war.

I feel you but Kubo’s the author in question. Kubo COULD set up fights using the the Zanpakuto / Quincy letters as a launch pad to express each character’s unique style, personality and intellect creating unique and creative battles. BUT instead Kubo simply uses the dated DBZ / shounen approach of 1 up manship in power.

I KNEW some thing like this would happen. Instead of letting Rukia WIN a fight or get a Bankai, Kubo cops out and lets Byakuya get the kill. I swear Kubo is soooooo predictable it hurts. it’s like he has DBZ syndrome in his writing. What a hack!!!

The manga is doing well? Please, it’s not even in top 10 in the most selling mangas of 2013 in Japan. And I don’t know about Japanese-speaking fans, but I don’t see anyone on the English speaking sites that would like it. Of course, chances are Kubo doesn’t give a damn about those.

I swear to god, none of you are reading the chapters properly. Byakuya already has his bankai back, because this was confirmed by As Nodt himself in the chapter all the captains get their bankai back. Also, Bambietta herself confirmed that Vollstandig cannot be used when a bankai is stolen, and guess what, As Nodt is using his Vollstandig…

As far as I remember, when Urahara sent that pill or whatever back to the captains, it showed every captain who was able to fight and who had their bankai stolen. It never showed Byakuya as he was still training and we didn’t know of what he was doing at the time nor if he had gotten it back.

I thought when the never-ending Aizen battle wrapped up, we might finally be past the point of Kubo’s writing consisting of characters just trying to one-up each other with serious/aloof looks and overly explained random powers. Guess not.

thing is, Kubo himself actually self-prides in his own writing too much and doesn’t really see anything wrong with it. I mean, you should have seen his face-book page during the fullbring arc, he was promoting and over-hyping the living crap out of everything as if it was masterful writing (Example: He told us that the fight between kenpachi and teh fullbringer guy would be epic and he actually leaked the page of kenpachi killing him with one hit a week early)….last I checked….having kenpachi kill a guy in one hit with no resistance is not an epic fight kubo.

Sigh…Rukia’s bankai will probably have to wait until the last arc or something…whenever that will be…when I’m too old to care?
I just hope the true form of Byakuya’s bankai (if there’s one) isn’t going to be a bunch of cherry blossom trees instead of walls of swords.

I hate this chapter. AGAIN, Rukia can’t defeat an opponent stronger than without the help of ICHIGO OR HER FRICKING ONESAMA I hate you Kubo so much. You destroyed Rukia’s character and made her someone there to fill a Bleach quota of characters being there. I KNEW THE QUINCY GUY WOULDN’T BE DEAD. And I was hoping Rukia would reveal a Bankai because it’s the end of the last arc so the characters can go balls out, but no he had to put Byakuya in there and that makes it seem like he doesn’t trust his sister judging how he FINALLY approved her being vice captain in Squad 6. Kubo turned her from a cool, cute, tough heroine, to a chick who is so weak that she can’t finish an opponent without some MAN stepping in to help. God I hate Bleach now! Just End Damn it. It’s like beating a dead horse.

Kubo is a fucking tool. He can’t draw backgrounds, he’s a sexist fuck, and he can’t write worth shit. Anyone still reading Bleach is doing it to watch how low it can go before it ends. Naruto still has an anime. One Piece still has an anime. Bleach? Fuck that.

Although it’s somewhat a matter of taste to some extent, I, as somebody who majors in graphic design, say that Kubo does draw better than Oda and Kishimoto. But the story? Meh. Only following it since I’ve been following it right from the start.

And I highly doubt it’s an excuse, but as I stated earlier, simply a change of style.

Damn Rukia is still that weak? Seriously Kubo should just kill her off at this point.That damsel in distress theme stitched to her is getting annoying.When was the last time she defeated an opponent without external help?
Anyway,i’m just waiting for Zaraki to pop up.

Well, all aside. What you all are here saying, “he could do this better, that better”. It is all Fan Fiction. You must see, Bleach is still Kubo’s Work. You can love it or (looks like here) hate it. Do the Peoples here that Love it, complain? So. because some are complaining here, the Manga is not all bad

I normally respect everyone else opinions if they’re factual but honestly…I got to say, you are looking at this story through rose-colored glasses. All because someone is a writer doesn’t mean they immune to criticism because honestly that doesn’t give them the right for us to assume everything they write is golden. Like I said, the only ones who look at BLeach or certain other manga’s with 100% support in everything and aren’t willing to admit there are issues aren’t using their brains and will forever be classified within the “fan group” aka: all of Tite Kubo’s facebook friends that boost his ego by applauding every single post he makes about the manga and even his daily life. (because who in the heck accepts that many random friends to the point where you can’t accept anymore…that is…to boost their ego and put them on facebook-god status)

Well, looks like you dont know me here. I also not Like the Way Bleach is going. If you cannot beat your Enemy, Power up. If you still not can beat the Enemy more Power up. You beat the enemy? there is a even stronger one coming next, also power up… That was since the beginning.

What’s with the obsession with some people about how female characters are portrayed in manga/anime?Most of these complaints seem to stem from the fact they’re stuck in a man/woman paradigm(rather ironically) – I mean, last fight Renji saved two guys which was not a problem, but Byakuya showing up to save his sister is?Rukia maybe a female lead but she’s still a side character and Ichigo is the main character, she’s not treated any worse or better than other side characters, plus, the focus on side characters depends on the respective arcs, and this arc is probably going to focus on Ishida.So either read it if you like it or don’t, either way blaming the author for not validating your self-righteous views is lame.

She’s not treated bad? She’s been the damsel in distress throughout the entire manga, regardless of the focus of each respective arc. Hell, even in the very first chapter, she already needs Ichigo to become a Shinigami in order to save her and his family because she is owned by a mere Hollow. And now, when it finally looks like she gets her moment to shine, with a power up and a new epic ability, guess what happens, she ends up being saved again. Then we have Orihime, with her supposedly godly abilities, guess what happens, she is kidnapped, has to be saved and in spite of her potential turns out to be quite useless and completely disappears for dozens of chapters. And what about Unohana? Please, don’t even let me go there. We finally have an epic female, strong fighter with intriguing backstory that has been hyped since the start of the manga. Guess what happens? Kubo has her literally commit suicide to power up another character when in sense, there is absolutely no need for that and that entire ‘training’ screams bullshit.

And I could go on. This manga absolutely lacks a strong and independent female that can hold the ground on her own.

@Germanguy
Do you simply refuse to read full posts now in your eternal defense of Kubo? He included Orihime in there, he made mention of all the potentially powerful female characters who were thrown on the fire of ‘plot tool for a dude’.

The point is manga aren’t required to have strong and independent female characters, if it has that’s not an issue, but not having such characters isn’t an issue either – in fact a manga can have only male characters for all I care and it’d still not be an issue.If you got out of the male/female paradigm of seeing things, you might see that there are plenty of male side characters treated in similar ways, and there’s nothing ‘bad’ about it or are you going to argue all characters(male and female) shouldn’t be treated ‘badly’, with you deciding what’s ‘bad’ and what’s not?
Now if you don’t like the way certain characters are treated then feel free to express your opinion about it, but please understand it’s just that, your personal opinion or preference, trying to insert a moral righteousness angle into your personal preference, or even worse, blaming the author for not validating your self-righteous views, after doing that, is just plain stupid.

I’m not saying the manga must have such characters, if it had only male characters then so be it, the author picked that kind of setting and if it’s done well, I wouldn’t complain. However, the biggest problem here is that the females in Bleach in fact do have the potential to be as great as the males, but Kubo continues to step on it.

And yes, there are males that get such treatment – Shinji and co. got pretty much screwed just recently – but please don’t go claiming that it’s on the same level as the treatment that Rukia, Orihime, etc. continue receiving. And it’s apparent throughout the entire manga. So you cannot blame me for thinking that the author is viewing the females as something less in his story when they continue to be used as stepping stones for males.

Lastly, yes, this is all just my opinion, I don’t know when ever I implied otherwise.

Every character can be great if the author wants them to be, but that would be a rather boring read.Again you’re complaints come from looking at things through a male/female lens and basically looking for stuff to complain about, no offense, and yes, there were plenty of male side characters who were treated much worse if you cared to look, plus, majority of the characters used as stepping stones were male characters.And you agree manga aren’t required to have such female characters, so I fail to see the issue.

And yes it’s your opinion, though in this case it is more of your preference, as in what kind of characters you would prefer to see, which by itself is fine, but inserting a moral righteousness angle to your preference and then blaming the author for not validating your self-righteous stance is stupid IMO.

Yes, because that’s how it is, some males may have been treated badly, but with females it’s like every of them. You keep repeating the last sentence, but it makes no sense, I’m just stating what everyone can see happening, you just won’t admit that it may be true and instead try to accuse me of moralizing.

I kept repeating because it doesn’t seem to get through to you, it’s like two people having two different favorite dishes and one person trying to convince others why he’s tastes are better, which is stupid IMO rather than just saying it’s not his preference.And please don’t comment on what everyone sees when you have no idea what they see, and I can’t admit to a problem that only exists in your head.Also considering this is a character focused(as opposed to story focused) manga with a male character as the protagonist it’s normal for all female characters to be sidelined(along with the rest of male characters) as it’s normal for all the male characters to be sidelined in a manga with similar leanings revolving around a female protagonist – it’s not a problem, even if you try to make it out to be.

I think that in shonen magazines the female characters, when not the MC, are only for support and/or for the MC fall in love with her. I’m able to cite a few female powerhouses, but most of them are from Fairy Tail, To love Ru or Claymore(duh). I think that (only conjecture though) in Japan, the boys that read those magazines want to see a powerful hero, but they may despise or be wary of strong female characters.

Isn’t the more likely conjecture that they’re just not interested?As in a matter of taste, I mean, surely there are manga that you don’t read or looked into and didn’t read, does that mean you despise or are wary of those manga(sorry, I don’t really get the reasoning behind your conjecture)?As far as shonen manga go, at least the ones I’ve read, usually have a MC and the rest of characters are for support(or they’re at least seen in relation to the MC), of course that includes the female characters.Similarly in shoujo genre manga that has a female MC, rest of the characters are for support, it’s more of a case as to through whose perspective the story is told, what I don’t get is how it’s a problem for some people – at least when female characters are involved.

ahahaha at the reactions, I told you all it was terrible. I quit with this chapter, I sit here just waiting and praying Miura gets back to berserk sometime in the near future. So I have some real quality to read.

But maybe..just maybe Kubo is totally trolling and byakuya will do some cool stuff, but get owned in the end. Then rukia’s like “yo, just kidding bro, i’m actually like way stronger than this.” Then she one shots the guy, since Kubo think’s killing enemies in a single hit is an epic fight. :P Well one can hope.

It is highly unlikely that Kubo will let Rukia snatch the kill from Byakuya at this stage. If you recall during the espada arc, Byakuya saved Rukia from the espada. Similarly, it will happen here since Byakuya went through the same training as Rukia. Readers won’t expect Rukia to have powers exceeding Byakuya.

I don’t read Bleach, but I do occasionally keep up with the posts here, and after reading them, I am so glad that 7 some odd years ago, I chose to stick with HxH over this. If only Togashi had a school, perhaps Kubo could actually learn how to make something not predictable =0\.

lol..Seriously.. i didnt expected nothing from Rukia to be honest.. i mean , is Kubo.. and we are talking about RUKIA..who is weak as shit, and have never owned anybody (he BARELY WON against Aroniero) i would have been surprised if she would have won this battle.
and to be honest.. as soon as i read that Byakuya was still alive i knew he was going to get his rematch against As Nodt.. and as soon Rukia vs As Nodt started i was like “Byakuya is totally going to rescue Rukia..” oh Kubo so predictable sometimes..

Ha! Last week I posted that Bleach was turning into pokemon! This chapter is the proof I needed to confirm my theory. We have an enemy with lots of eyes to look at, and miraculously an ally that is able to destroy lots of things at the same time with his flowerblades.

Karma, I don’t actually see that many mangas with this point-of-view. What I see in most shonen are characters training, or thriving in order to beat someone, in Bleach we see something like “I’m not a good match for it, so I’ll leave this one to you”.

This chapter… was more disappointing than seeing Ichigo pull a DBZ snake trail moment.

I guess we got to see the limits of her abilities here. All her training with the Royal Guards, learning of her Zanpakuto’s real powers and having a stronger demeanor, she still got a power boost of only +1 compared to everyone else that trained with the Royal Guards. The only spark of hope is that Rukia is a Magikarp: a couple of useless “flipping” abilities (while tagging it out with a stronger pokemon to get the kill and share the experience) before evolving to Gyarados. And in this sense, she’s still a Magikarp.

Aside from the disappointments and confirmation that 70% of the females in Bleach suck (except Unohana, Yoruchi, and Kukaku who get less than 50% showtime unless it’s a filler), at least Nodt is well designed and is freakin FUGLY. So I’m curious to see what else he has in store for abilities besides the “fear” shenanigans that don’t work on the *dead* Captain commander. So, what could a Captain could have learned from the top dogs if he has already “mastered” bankai and his Zanpakuto’s abilities???